Brewers television broadcaster Brian Anderson blogs about baseball in Milwaukee.

Brewers @ Cardinals

A big, 2-game series begins Tuesday between the Brewers and the Cardinals. The Crew swept four games from the Redbirds last time through St. Louis and there is plenty of healthy dislike between the two teams this time around.

At 76-55, the Brewers open the series five games behind the Division leading Cubs and 3.5 games ahead of St. Louis in the Wild Card standings. The Crew is a season-high 21 games over .500. The team has not been 22 games over the .500 mark since finishing the 1992 season at 92-70.

With their 3-game sweep of the Pirates over the weekend, the Brewers have now won four straight games overall and are 14-4 since August 5.

Milwaukee has beaten St. Louis six straight times, outscoring the Cardinals by a combined 30-15 in the process.

St. Louis took two of three from the Braves over the weekend and has now won seven of 10 games overall.

Albert Pujols is the reigning NL Player of the Week and has four straight multi-hit games and is hitting .563 (18-for-32) with four home runs and 12 RBI during his current 8-game hitting streak.

Ben Sheets is going for a career season-high tying 12th win tonight–Sheets is 0-3 with a 3.98 ERA in his last five road starts.

The Cardinals have nine walk-off wins this season–tied for second-most in baseball behind the Reds (10)

Cardinals Injury Update:

Brian Barton (strained right oblique) was injured in the sixth inning August 24.

Jason Isringhausen (torn tendon near right elbow) went on the 15-day disabled list August 22 and is out for the rest of the season.

Chris Carpenter (strained right shoulder muscle) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to August 11.

Mark Mulder (left shoulder strain) went on the 15-day disabled list July 10. He missed the season’s first three months while recovering from shoulder surgery. He was told not to throw a ball until mid-August.

Josh Kinney, out since suffering a broken right elbow in August 2007, began a rehab assignment with a scoreless inning Sunday for Double-A Springfield. He hit the first batter, then induced a double play and recorded a strikeout.

Chris Duncan (pinched nerve in neck) went on the 15-day disabled list July 22. He had season-ending surgery August

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